1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to an electric field read/write head, manufacturing the electric field read/write head, and a storage unit including the electric field read/write head.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD), that is, the main memory device of a computer, reads/writes information from/to a rotating recording medium using a magnetic read/write head. That is, the HDD produces a plurality of magnetic domains magnetized in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction on a magnetic recording medium using a magnetic field and matches data “0” to a magnetic domain magnetized in the first direction and data “1” to a magnetic domain magnetized in the second direction.
The recording density of the HDD using a magnetic recording method has been sharply increasing in recent years. In the case of an HDD of a horizontal magnetic recording type, a recording density of about 100 Gb/in2 can be obtained. In the case of an HDD of a vertical magnetic recording type, a recording density of about 500 Gb/in2 can be obtained. In this regard, there is a limit in increasing the recording density because it is difficult to generate a strong local magnetic field using the magnetic read/write head.
Recently, studies on a ferroelectric recording medium where data is recorded not by a magnetic field but by an electric field and an electric field sensor for recording/reproducing on/from the ferroelectric recording medium have been conducted. In an electric field effect recording method, a plurality of electric domains are polarized in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction on the surface of ferroelectrics media using an electric field and the electric domains polarized in the first and second directions are respectively matched to data “0” and “1”. Since the resistance of an electric field sensor located above the electric domains changes according to the polarization direction of each electric domain, the amount of current flowing between a source electrode and a drain electrode of the electric field sensor varies. Information written to the electric domain can be determined by detecting the change in the amount of current. Also, in the electric field effect read/write method, a high recording density of over 1 Tb/in2 can be theoretically obtained.